The invention generally relates to a medical imaging processing and analysis system, and, more particularly, to a computerized medical imaging processing and analysis process and system capable of remotely analyzing a medical image.
Medical imaging and analysis is becoming critical to the medical diagnosis and treatment of many different diseases and disorders. Such medical imaging started with the ubiquitous X-ray photograph, and today includes CT and MRI imaging, among other technologies. Medical imaging technologies are being developed and improved all the time. These imaging technologies allow complex images of the internal organs of a human being to be captured, often in three dimensions and in complex detail. For instance, medical imaging has proven especially useful in the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases, including Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer""s, and Parkinson""s, among others.
Because these medical images can be so extremely detailed and complex, medical care practitioners have sought new technologies to help them evaluate and interpret these medical images. Thus, computer systems utilizing complex software to aid in the interpretation and diagnosis of medical images are being developed at a rapid pace.
These new medical imaging computer systems implement breakthroughs in digital imaging technology and computer processing capabilities. Utilizing these new technologies, the imaging systems are useful to aid medical practitioners by enhancing important aspects of a medical image, eliminating superfluous detail, and even by providing preliminary medical diagnoses. Also, these imaging technologies are being adapted to help understand the functioning of human organs, including the human brain.
However, advances in the medical profession are occurring at ever increasing rates. Meanwhile, the costs of these technologies continue to rise. The confluence of these circumstances means that medical facilities must allocate ever increasing portions of their cash flow to modernizing and updating their equipment. If a medical provider is to utilize the most recent advances in medical imaging, it is typically required to regularly purchase ever faster computers and install ever more complex software to stay abreast of the latest advances. The rapid pace of advancement in the technology requires that this software be updated regularly. And the limited use of these imaging systems means that it is difficult to recover the costs associated with them. These issues put a severe drain on the monetary resources of medical providers, preventing these investment dollars from being used for other purposes or prohibiting some medical providers from making such imaging diagnosis tools available to their patients.
An alternative service paradigm for providing medical imaging services that allows for nearly continuous upgrades and advances in capabilities without requiring substantial up-front or continuous monetary investment in the latest imaging analysis technologies would be very beneficial to the medical provider community.
Such a service paradigm can utilize the Application Service Provider [ASP] business model. The ASP model allows software to be installed and maintained on powerful and/or special purpose computers and/or utilize parallel processing. A service is then provided whereby remotely located users can access these programs from their own computers, such as, for example, via the Internet. Data is exchanged between the user and the ASP, but the ASP computers and software do the actual processing of the data. Thus, users can utilize powerful and complex hardware/software solutions without being required to make the financial investment in purchasing and maintaining the computer systems and software. In turn, the ASP can make a profit by selling the computer services to remotely located users. In this way the ASP model can help to maximize the utilization of computing resources.
More specifically, ASPs provide a contractual service offering to deploy, host, manage, and rent access to an application from a centrally managed facility. This allows providing software functionality to become an ongoing service, instead of a shrink-wrapped product, creating a longer lasting relationship with the customer. Deploying software in this manner allows the service provider to immediately introduce new revenue-generating features, capitalize on third party advertising, and rapidly expand the customer base through xe2x80x9cviral-marketingxe2x80x9d techniques. Several important characteristics define ASPs, including:
Application Centricity: Unlike basic hosting services, which focus on the management of the network and connectivity, or business processing outsourcing, which manages an entire process such as accounting or human resources, ASPs provide access to and management of a commercially available application.
xe2x80x9cRentingxe2x80x9d Application Access: By saving the users from making up-front investments in software licenses, personnel, or equipment, ASP providers offer access to users on a per-use or subscription basis.
Central Management: By helping the users avoid the many issues of software use at individual sites, including loading the software on different computers of different configuration, troubleshooting problems at numerous sites, and updating with new versions, ASPs allow complete management of the software from the provider""s end, without involvement of the user.
ASPs, in particular, allow multiple users to take advantage of a single software solution to a particular problem. Therefore, once a software solution is created for an individual problem, other users can immediately take advantage of it without having to duplicate the efforts and costs of the original developers. Thus, the ASP model creates a one-to-many relationship (one application shared among many users), with significant cost savings over the traditional methods of software deployment.
The Remote Medical Image Analysis System utilizes a business model similar to the ASP paradigm to the medical community, offering remotely located doctors, clinicians, researchers, and other medical providers new, up-to-date medical software imaging tools using a fee-for-service ASP model, with fees charged either on a pay-per-use (e.g., credit card) or on a subscription basis. For example, one early anticipated use of the invention is the quantification of brain atrophy for Multiple Sclerosis patients.
Additional uses in addition to the above-mentioned brain atrophy measurement can involve other medical imaging modalities besides magnetic resonance, such as planar x-ray, x-ray computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), ultrasound, optical imaging, and electromagnetic biomedical signals. Also, the region of interest is not limited to the brain. The Medical Image Analysis System can thus provide medical practitioners with access to state-of-the-art medical image analysis capability at little or no initial investment by the user.
The ASP model can support the growing list of medical imaging software programs (beyond those described above) as such programs are developed. Parallel processing capability can also be easily implement by an ASP, allowing for more efficient image processing and more complex application support, allowing users to benefit from the parallel processing capability of an ASP without the expense of implementing such a system. Thus, the Remote Medical Image processing System can be a useful means of providing complex medical imaging technology to various medical providers in a beneficial and cost effective way.
The Remote Medical Image Analysis System implements a process for providing computerized medical image analysis for medical service providers.
To analyze a medical image, the networked system accepts a medical image file from a remotely located user. The medical image file is transferred over a computer network using computer operations. The system then analyzes the medical image file also via computer operations. The analysis results (which may include transformed images, reports, and diagnoses) are then transferred by the system to the user, again via computer operations over the computer network.